Consultant omitted to tell me I had fibroids, following an investigation

[Redandbluespots]

I had a laparoscopy in August due to pelvic pain. The consultant has admitted that he did see 4 fibroids but failed to report at the the, as he doesn't believe they are causing issues. 1 of them is 7cm. An mri since has shown them. Thankfully I am now under a new consultant, who will be doing a hysterectomy shortly.
Where do I stand?
Thank you 🙏 xx

Fibroids are common and generally don't cause issues. Around two thirds of women have them. The 7cm fibroid classes as a medium fibroid. However, the size is largely irrelevant. What matters is whether the fibroids were causing issues.

From a legal perspective, to get anywhere with this you would need to prove that the original consultant's actions were not what a reasonable consultant would have done in the circumstances and that this has caused an injury or allowed your condition to get worse. You would need a report from an independent medical expert saying that your treatment was substandard.

What are you wanting from him/the hospital?
An apology? Acknowledgement that he was wrong? Money?
You'll grow wings and fly before you'll get the first two and the third you'll need to prove physical damage or financial loss to stand a chance. You'll need a specialist service.

We sued the hospital after the doctor negligently caused nerve damage to our son during delivery (she pulled his head and caused partial paralysis of his arm).

It took 10 years to settle and that was with concrete proof of negligence and two operations!

Has he explained why he didn't report on them at the time, did he say he wanted an mri to confirm. I would ask for a meeting.

Thank you. I'm sorry to hear what an awful time you had :(
I just thought they had to disclose all findings

He said he didn't as he doesn't believe they are causing my issues. The new consultant disagrees with this.

Any findings must be reported, regardless of severity.

How did you get a new consultant? If the first one didn't share his findings and still works there I would write to his boss, might be the Director of Medicine, Surgery or the CEO. They can investigate and feed back to him either in person or during a consultants meeting. There may also be gynae meetings when the 2nd consultant can discuss it with him. If its delayed your diagnosis, treatment, health I would complain, it's not his decision to withhold info without a very good reason.

This is what I thought!

I asked to change as lost faith and didn't want the originally one treating me anymore.

I'm afraid it isn't true. A consultant should report all relevant findings. Since two thirds of women have fibroids and they mostly cause no issues, a consultant is only required to report on them if they are causing problems.

This isn't true.

Any findings during a scan are reported.
Ever had a pelvic USS and read the report after. It details everything, from the thickness lining of the endometrium, to how many ovarian cysts are there.
Fibroids are not normal. They may be common but they are not normal. Any fibroid, regardless of size must be marked up. 7cm isn't even that small.
Imagine if the OP went back 3 months for an ultrasound, and the fibroid had grown to 10cm. Now a fibroid growing 3cm in a month is concern enough, but going by the consultants report there wasn't any at all, so OP officially now has a 10cm fibroid that came from no where.
Do you see the issue yet...

Are you saying that every single finding should be reported to the patient, which is what I believe OP is talking about? They should clearly be recorded for the reasons you state.

Surely the consultant should report all findings to the patient, the only reason a patient would see the consultant or have a laparoscopy would be because there were issues, like pain or bleeding that needed investigation.

The question is whether the consultant should tell the patient findings that they believe are not relevant to the issues being investigated. They clearly should if they find something serious (e.g. an undetected tumour), but what if it is something that isn't a problem and isn't the cause of the patient's issues?

Then they report incidental findings. In this case the patient saw a doctor due to pain, had a laparoscopy that showed fibroid, this was probably the cause of the pain. Why shouldn't a patient be told what they find? Whats the point in going through investigations and procedures if no one tells you what they find. I had am mri due to abdo pain, found to have divertuclar disease.

A diagnosis of fibroids wouldn't have speeded any treatment up, believe me. I was waiting four years to get my fibroids (multiple, some of them 10cm; I had a uterus the size of a 6 month pregnancy) sorted on the NHS, during which time I was admitted to hospital twice for PV bleeding (once after passing out in a pool of blood in A&E) and was told that this didn't merit moving up the waiting list. I'd still be waiting now (five years on) if I hadn't forked out for a hysterectomy privately.

According to OP, the consultant was of the view that the fibroid was not the cause of the pain. Unless you know something the consultant didn't, you can't say that the fibroids were probably the cause.

Fibroids are tumours.

I should have put "potentially malignant" in there. Fibroids are non-cancerous.

Thank you for your replies. I always thought that anything that wasn't normal should be reported on? It's made me doubt everything and withholding this information has caused me harm, I believe.

One of my fibroids turned cancerous, extremely rare but it happens.

Berlin lover - I'm sorry to hear that :( I hope you are okay now x

I have been looking at all my scan results (currently booked in for an urgent hysterectomy), all my past scans mention any tiny abnormalities including cysts and fibroids so it should have been listed. A fibroid may not be an issue when it’s small but they can grow and become a problem.

Im having huge trust issues with my consultant, I haven’t been offered a scan, just booked in for open surgery without getting a clear reason why. I have heard so many stories from other women it’s scary. I’m booked for a private scan on Tuesday, my surgery will go ahead but I just want to be sure that I can’t have a key hole procedure (they are saying my uterus is too large despite not scanning).

I’m not sure if you will get anywhere with this OP but I do agree that they were wrong to inform you of visible fibroids.

Did the consultant report the findings to your GP and therefore is it not on your NHS app?
Is the hysterectomy being carried out because of the fibroids?

No, they omitted to report it to myself or my gp on the report. I just don't understand why :(